The Last Light
by TwinEnigma
Summary: The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond visit Sagittarius Zero and have a strange encounter with a woman in white. Edit: Now with EXTENDED author's notes. Please read all warnings before reading.


_**The Last Light**_

_By TwinEnigma_

_Disclaimer: For fun, not profit. Obviously not the owner of Doctor Who or Sailor Moon._

_Characters: Amy Pond, Eleventh Doctor_

_Spoilers: Sailor Stars, maybe a bit of DW eps Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, Time of Angels, Flesh and Stone  
_

_Warnings: Extreme **Alternate Character Interpretation**, **HORROR** - see End Author's notes for all questions.  
_

* * *

"So where are we now? Space station? Moon?" Amy Pond, the girl who never quite grew up, asked. She rocked on the balls of her feet as she trailed her fingers through the dust on the walls. "Doctor?"

The Doctor had wandered to the other side of the room with his usual energy and appeared to have busied himself with a box of some sort. Amy watched him, unable to hide a little bit of a grin at his antics.

"Not sure yet. Catacombs, maybe two yards underground, planetoid, unstable orbit, near the center of the Mutter's Spiral. Looks like fortieth century," the Doctor paused, turning the box over, back and forth, before finishing, "No. That's not right."

Amy had been traveling with the Doctor just long enough to know that when he said something like that and was making a face that seemed torn between deeply disturbed and insanely curious, then she should expect something _exciting_ was about to happen and she should be ready to run.

Really, she was doing an awful lot of running these days.

"What is it, Doctor?" she asked, trying to peek over his shoulder.

"This is a thirtieth century music box," he explained, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and running it over the box. Finally, he turned it over with a flourish, shoved it into her hands, and pointed out some small lettering, worn smooth by time. "Ah! Look at that, Amy!"

It was a company of some sort with a fancy, flowery name that from the look that the Doctor was giving her was clearly supposed to mean something to her. "What am I looking at?" she asked.

"Made on Earth," he said, wiggling his eyebrows. Then, he was moving off to examine another wall even as he continued, "After the fall of the First Earth Empire. But it couldn't have been, since Earth was still cooling off from the solar flares and it'll be centuries before you lot get back there."

"So, what's a thirtieth century music box doing out here?" Amy asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor said, grinning a bit as his wide eyes darted back and forth over the wall, "But we're going to find out!"

Seeing as he was occupied, Amy turned the music box back over and gave it a more thorough look. The metal was dark and foul with age, but she could still make out the inlay of roses and a castle. She supposed it must have been very precious to someone once and wondered if it could still play. There didn't seem to be any sort of winding key, but maybe thirtieth century music boxes didn't need them.

Something shimmered on the edge of her vision and, startled, Amy turned to look.

There was a doorway she hadn't seen before, lit with faint light.

"Doctor?" she called, fingers tightening on the box.

"This is really very strange," he said, distractedly leaning in to get a better look at the wall. "This writing is very new, but the language is very old. And familiar. What is it? Think, think, think... Something very odd is going on here."

Seeing no help coming from him, Amy sighed and put down the music box. Just a peek, she told herself and started through the doorway, disappearing down the hall towards the light.

A few minutes later, the Doctor figured out where he'd seen it before and shot straight to his full height as he called out, "Amy!"

Silence.

He turned, seeing no red-headed companion, a music box on the floor, and an illuminated hall through a doorway he hadn't noticed earlier. Immediately, he bolted for the doorway and hoped he wasn't too late.

* * *

The hallway led to a simple stone staircase. Above, the light was noticeably stronger. Amy hesitated a moment and then carefully climbed up, looking around in growing awe. It was a Gothic cathedral, huge and eerily empty, but familiar. It felt almost like she'd seen it before on Earth, in pictures. The light seemed to be coming from where the altar should be and, cautiously, she walked towards it.

As she got closer, she realized the light was actually not coming from a light at all, but a coming from a woman, as if the poor thing was completely made of it. The woman looked human enough, though. She was dressed in white, wearing the most ridiculously odd – albeit very pretty – sailor's costume she'd ever seen, and with white hair that would put all legends of Rapunzel to serious shame. Though, Amy had to admit, she couldn't quite figure out how the woman had managed the heart-shaped buns on the top of her head.

The woman gave her a kind smile. "Hello, child of Earth."

"Hello," Amy said, making sure she was still a good distance away, just in case.

"You needn't be frightened. I mean you no harm," the woman said, smiling.

Amy fidgeted a little, willing herself to stay put. "I'm Amy, Amy Pond. What's your name?"

"My name?" the woman asked absently. "It's been a long time since anyone has called my name. A long, long time... I've been alone so long I've forgotten."

Poor thing, Amy thought. The woman had obviously gone a bit soft in the head.

"What brings you here, to Sagittarius Zero, Amy Pond?" the woman asked, smiling again.

"I'm on a bit of a holiday – cruise the stars, explore strange places, new civilizations, that sort of thing," Amy replied. Best not to mention the wedding she was putting off or the Doctor for now. Some places, as she had discovered the hard way, did not have Doctor-friendly locals. And Rory, well... that whole business was not up for discussion, least of all with strange mad women in spooky cathedrals.

"Do you like traveling the stars?" the woman asked kindly.

"Very much," Amy said, uncertain as to where this was leading.

"Would you like to travel the stars forever and ever?" the woman asked, holding out a closed hand and opening it slowly to reveal a shimmering crystal.

It was the prettiest thing Amy had ever seen and, unconsciously, she took a step closer.

"The whole of the universe at your fingertips, to travel forever and never stop," the woman said, smiling and kind and warm and friendly – _trust me, trust me_... "You'd never be alone again."

The crystal in the woman's hand glowed with its own inner fire and Amy could see supernovas and suns inside _and oh god she could see everything in the universe_ and she suddenly wanted it so badly.

And then the Doctor was there, enveloping her in a hug and forcing her to lower the arm she hadn't known she'd raised. It was like being doused in ice cold water and she shivered in his arms.

"Back to the TARDIS," he ordered, his gaze locked on the glowing being in white, who still held out her hand with the shining crystal.

"Doctor?" Amy managed shakily as he pushed her behind him.

"I'm so lonely," the woman said, imploringly raising the crystal. "Won't you travel with me, Amy? Forever and ever, never alone..."

The Doctor took a step back, forcing Amy to step back with him and, in a tone that chilled her to the bones, he said, "Just ignore her, Amy."

"What's the matter, Doctor?" she asked. "She's not some kind of Weeping Angel, is she?"

"No," the Doctor said, never taking his eyes off the glowing woman, who was now standing to follow them, and then added, "She's much, much worse."

"Worse? How can she be _worse?_" Amy shouted, incredulously. To her, the idea of something _worse_ than Weeping Angels was downright ludicrous.

The woman smiled kindly. "I can give you forever, an eternity in the stars."

"No thank you, not interested," the Doctor said firmly, still herding Amy back towards the stairs.

"There used to be so many of us," the woman said absently, the crystal shimmering brightly and, for a moment, Amy could see images of countless other women both alien and human in strange clothes, all with the sailor collars and shining crystals. "They're all gone now. And I'm all alone, so very alone."

"Yes, yes, very sad," the Doctor said, in a way that said he really wasn't sad about it at all, but completely anxious about getting them back to the TARDIS and away from here as fast as he could.

"You have the fire of a warrior within you, Amy," the woman said, still smiling, "Take this, fight for the stars."

Amy's arm rose almost of its own volition and the Doctor swatted it down, holding on tightly. "Amy, listen to me, Amy. You don't want that," he said, "It's not what it seems to be. The crystal's a parasite. You take it and you'll never be free. Not even in death."

"But it's just a rock –" she started.

"Highly psychic parasitic crystalline lifeform," he corrected her, glaring at the glowing woman. "They can give their hosts incredible psychokinetic powers and longevity, but at a cost. Whole systems were psychically enslaved to these things and whole planets destroyed by the psychic feedback when the hosts were killed."

A flicker of anger crossed the woman's face, before disappearing beneath the warm and eerily rapturous expression she wore. "And whole systems were saved by the sailor crystal. The sailor crystal brings _life_."

"Have you thought about why you wanted to take the crystal?" the Doctor asked. "It's been pushing you psychically. It prefers female hosts."

Amy paled a little and immediately looked back to see how far away the stairs were. Not too far now.

"When I say, turn and run back to the TARDIS," the Doctor said, "Don't stop, not even for a second. Just run as fast as you can."

"I'm so lonely," the woman said, her gaze shifting to the Doctor. "Aren't you, child of Gallifrey?"

He stiffened and Amy could see his jaw clench. A distant part of her mind realized dimly that he'd never said it didn't take male hosts, too, and she was suddenly struck with an overwhelming sense of horror.

Not the Doctor, she thought, not him.

"Take it. Take it and you could bring Gallifrey back. With the light of this star, you could bring them all back, safe and _healed_, never to fear for anything again," the woman continued, holding out the crystal to the Doctor.

"Yes, yes, never to wither, never to die, never to _change._ Nothing but pale shadows of what they were and slaves to that... that _thing_, forever!" the Doctor spat, glaring back. "Amy, run!"

The buzz of the sonic screwdriver cut through the air at a high pitch and Amy could hear a crystalline ringing noise as the woman began to scream, but there was no time to look. Already, Amy was running down the stairs and back through the hallway to the TARDIS, the Doctor practically on her heels and shouting at her to run faster as the hallway grew brighter and brighter.

The two of them practically scrabbled at the door to the TARDIS in their hurry to get inside and then the Doctor was flicking switches as quickly as possible to get them the hell out of there.

* * *

Afterwards, as they settled into orbit around a binary star in the sixteenth century, Amy finally had gathered herself enough and spoke up. "She was the last of her kind, wasn't she?"

"Yes," the Doctor admitted and fiddled with something on the controls.

"Could she really do all those things she said?" she asked, leaning back against the railing. "Bring people back from the dead and all?"

"And more," the Doctor said, looking up. "The crystal parasites were capable of phenomenal amounts of energy, even able to fold back time on itself – small wonder they were worshipped on some planets. But it's flawed: all those saved by that power become trapped in the crystal's psychic field more and more until they can't even think for themselves."

He paused, looking away. "Imagine, Amy Pond. The universe at your fingertips, life and death yours to control, and all it wants is your free will in exchange."

Amy gripped the railing.

"You'd never even know you were a prisoner either," the Doctor added, "You'd stay the same forever, never even thinking to question why you've never changed. You'd just keep going on, fighting, never able to rest, never able to die."

"How long do you think she's been there?" Amy asked.

The Doctor fiddled with the controls again. "At least since the late thirtieth century. I doubt her host even knows how long it's been."

"How sad," Amy said, honestly.

* * *

**Author's Notes: ** I am actually considering moving the Author's note to my fanfiction livejournal, daddywarbats, simply because this is so long it's ridiculous and I really shouldn't have to go this in depth into explaining myself because of people who can't take chocolate in their peanut butter.

...

Before you get all Hurp-derp Sailormoon is SRS BSNS/you fail canon forever, let me address your concerns in depth, point by point.

_1. YOU READ TOO MUCH FANFIC._

- Ha, no. Actually, I don't read very much fanfiction in the Sailor Moon category at all.

_2. THIS IS ALL FANON._

- No, actually this has very little to do with fanon, beyond a few related themes.

_3. BS, THIS IS CRYSTAL DYSTOPIA/EVIL SAILOR SENSHI._

- First, let's look at the category this fic is in.

It's in "Horror." It is not intended to be a WAFF-y fluffbomb fic.

There is no utopia, true or dystopia, in this fic. **_None._**

It is set in the _cathedral at Sagittarius Zero_ in the **_40th _**century, which is right near the Galaxy Cauldron, and they _**find**_ old, tarnished music box from Earth in the **_30th_** century. That's a thousand year difference there - that's a _lot_ of time.

It is actually perfectly feasible for Crystal Tokyo to have both risen and fallen within that time frame and I'll tell you why.

In the DW episode "The Beast Below" (set in the 33rd century), it's stated that everyone left earth in the 29th century because solar flares roasted the earth and that they don't come back for centuries because the Earth needed to cool down. That's a natural disaster _and_ would require the Earth to be frozen to save people, which is what was suggested to have happened before the rise of Crystal Tokyo in the anime canon.

It is also explicitly stated in SM canon that ChibiUsa comes from the 30th century.

Now let's flash forward a bit.

In the manga canon, Sailors Chaos and Cosmos were the last two senshi left when Cosmos fled from the fighting and into the past. It doesn't say when the battle with Chaos started or for how long it went on, only that it was the "far future." Presumably, Crystal Tokyo did _eventually_ fall, either _before_ or _because_ of the fighting.

Sailor Cosmos has been fighting what is presumably a war of incalculable attrition with Sailor Chaos, and, if she is indeed the final form of Sailor Moon (this is still vague), she's about 2,000 years old. She's _mourning,_ she's lonely (she states that she was alone), the war with Chaos has shattered her confidence and robbed her of all her family and friends, and she's desperate for someone, _anyone_ to talk to_. _She wants a friend. That's hardly evil. It's actually quite tragic.

The sailor crystal, being psychic and empathic **in _this_ story**, is just doing what it _thinks_ Cosmos wants - it knows she's lonely and upset, so it looks for another host in which to spread an offshoot of itself. **_In this story_**, it doesn't really understand humans _at all_, but I'll go into further depth on that in a moment.

_4. HDU, THE SAILOR CRYSTAL ISN'T EVIL/DOESN'T BRAINWASH PEOPLE/IS NOT SENTIENT!_

- All right, first thing first, before you even start into me, I'm going to redirect your attention to the warning at the top which said **"Alternative Character Interpretation."** If you chose to read on _after_ reading that warning, that's on you. I also ask you to pay attention to the portions of the last answer where I bolded the words "in this story."

Now, the sailor crystal** is** canonically shown as **empathic to its wielder **in _both_ the manga and anime. In the original manga arc, Sailor Moon's desire to save Tuxedo Mask causes a fragment of the crystal to enter his body and renders her incapable of using it to it's full ability - this after Queen Serenity even flat out _warns_ her that it follows her heart. In Sailor Moon R (manga), Sailor Moon's Moon Princess Halation wouldn't work primarily because of her doubts about herself, Tuxedo Mask and Chibi-Usa - she notes this_ herself_, after she is captured by Prince Diamond. Only after she acknowledges that weakness is Neo Queen Serenity's power able to activate her crystal from the past. Likewise, Chibi Usa's emotional growth is what allows her to become a Sailor Senshi and begin to grow up. Time and again, the relationship between powers and emotions is a theme and not just for the Moon senshi. Sailor Moon S features this as well with each of the Inner senshi's battles (Ami against Fisheye, Rei against Tigereye, Makoto against Hawkeye, Minako against the Amazoness Quartet). Even Sailor Cosmos is subject to this, citing that her confusion, fear and doubt made her lose her confidence and, in turn, her powers. When Sailor Moon leaps into the cauldron, with absolute faith in herself and hope, Cosmos realizes her decision was correct and her confidence is restored. She is then able to return and move forward, as Sailor Cosmos and _as a person._

In Doctor Who, there exists precedent for species made of stone and both psychic and empathic entities. For example, the Weeping Angels. They exist outside of normal space-time and appear to be made out of stone. They feed on potential energy. It is unknown how they communicate between themselves, only that they can reanimate the cerebral cortex of a dead human to give themselves a voice to others.

Remember what I said before about this being a _horror_ fanfic?

In order to handle the crossover, **some part of either canon had to yield a little**. Doctor Who, while aimed at families, is known for it's Nightmare Fuel/Fridge Horror. While many regular episodes can be humorous, they can rapidly go to the opposite extreme. The Doctor himself has faced down his fair share of Eldritch Abominations. In contrast, Sailor Moon, while it doesn't shy from horror or violence, actually is very upbeat, romantic and optimistic. There were a lot of ways I could have gone with this but **a crackfic or friendship and sunshine fic was not my goal with this.**

So, I wondered.

What if the Sailor Crystal itself was a lifeform? Not one as we understand it, no, but something much more abstract. What if having a host was a part of its life cycle, a means by which it can find others of its own kind and reproduce? Empathy and psychokinetic powers would fit for a lifeform with the ability to affect changes on reality, such as "magic" attacks. What sort of drawbacks would it's host encounter? Would they be aware of them? Would the crystal even be _capable_ of communicating on the same level as an ordinary human, in a way that _we_ could _understand_?

Humans are _perfectly_ capable of deluding and brainwashing themselves, no external power involved. It doesn't take much, especially not when a practical physical god like a Sailor Senshi gets involved. Miracles and powers they can see and touch, that impact their lives - I can see the people of those planets easily worshiping their senshi. And, yes, belief _does_ matter to a senshi. If the people believe the senshi is the spirit or god of their planet and the senshi themselves hears it all the time, over the course of years and years, then they might begin to believe it, too. Add the idea of a psychic, empathic, reality-warping crystal trying to understand its host and, well, you have a recipe for a planet being destroyed at the same time as their senshi.

_That_ is actually where this comes from, not the fanon.

_5. TL;DR, you fail canon - I KNOW BECAUSE I READ X POST BY X USER/TVTROPES/READ/WATCHED THE SAILORMOON CANON._

Great for you.

I have access to the exact same media you do and have read and watched the material just as much. _That_ is how I know that the Sailor Moon canon has holes you could drive buses through and that fanon's dystopia does have legitimate grounds _because_ of those holes. Yes, it was _not_ the creator's original intention and we're _not_ supposed to think so hard about it. It doesn't change the fact that people _do_ think about it and those of us that do think about it or write a fic about it shouldn't be treated like lepers or idiots for that.

_So what_ if people from another fandom read fanon and think it's how it is? Is it _our fault_ for writing a fic or _theirs_ for believing it's how it is based on a fanfic?

And yeah, I know what the canon says about Sailor Crystals. Remember how I bolded the part about some part of either canon had to yield a little?

Yeah. You might want to read that part again. For Doctor Who, it was the timeframe between episodes; for Sailor Moon, it was the concept of "all souls, all planets are born from star seeds, only special ones become sailor crystals."

_6. STFU UR STILL RONG_

Legit crit is one thing, bitching me out because you're offended I made Cosmos's Sailor Crystal a parasitic alien intelligence for a _horror_ fanfic is entirely different.

I mean, I should not have to explain the difference between "hey this part's a little unclear, could you fix that up" and "You're wrong, everything you wrote is wrong, you have never seen these series, you're a horrible person, you stupid bitch, you stupid fucking Yank, you're rewriting canon, you hate Sailor Moon, fuck you, you hate Doctor Who, people like you are the reason I hate Americans, oh fanon established this theory on TVtropes so I guess you believe it's true too, huh?"

Most of those came from anon reviews I've since deleted for their sheer abusiveness - and one of the troll accounts has the gall to say I get defensive and abusive when I'm told I'm wrong? GEE I WONDER **_WHY_**. Could it be that the personal insults or attack on my nationality are offensive?

**Do me a favor** - if you **_don't_** like this story because you _loathe_ the idea that someone _dared_ to suggest an alternate interpretation that paints the Sailor Crystals in a more horrific light, **don't leave an abusive anon review and just ****hit the back button.**


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